Vampires

Vampire Definition

A corpse supposed, in European folklore, to leave its grave at night to drink the blood of the living by biting their necks with long pointed canine teeth.

A person who preys ruthlessly on others. "the vampires in Congress"

A small bat that feeds on the blood of mammals or birds using its two sharp incisor teeth and anticoagulant saliva, found mainly in tropical America.

Vampire's Story

Vampires are one of the most varied and controversial creatures out of myth, legend and popular media. There are even people who insist they are vampires alive today... not necessarily in the eternal life, blood-sucking way, though. Most people accept that Vlad Tepes, of Vlad Dracul as he was known due to his membership in the Order of the Dragon, started the whole vampire thing, there have been reports of beastly beings that drank blood and ate flesh well before he existed.

Various names were used for these blood-sucking or flesh-eating monsters throughout mostly eastern Europe. In Greece, people called them vrykolakas and in Romania, they were called strigoi. Each type had unique characteristics, but most followed the same guidelines. Instead of gaunt and pale, these early vampires were red and swollen, engorged with blood. They were guilty of not just sucking out the life juices of people and animals, but also of moving things around poltergeist style and causing illness and epidemics. Some just walked, some flew and transformed into other animals but all scared people enough so that they took various measures to make sure the corpses of their loved ones did not get up and walk again.

Some just walked, some flew and transformed into other animals but all scared people enough so that they took various measures to make sure the corpses of their loved ones did not get up and walk again.

"The Vampyre" written by John William Polidori in 1819 began the modern view of vampires as dashing and sensual, able to woo their victims instead of simply attacking them. Decades later in 1897, Bram Stoker released his famous "Dracula" and the vampire craze commenced.

These days, vampires are well represented in books, TV shows and film. They take on many guises from the dark and dangerous to the angst-ridden and sparkly. They are still creatures that instill fear in most, who need to sustain themselves with blood and who live forever.

Vampires in Movies

30 Days of Night series

Interview With a Vampire

Bram Stoker's Dracula

The Lost Boys

Nosferatu

Underworld

Blade series

Salem's Lot

Fright Night

From Dusk Till Dawn

Let Me In

Near Dark

True Blood

Vampires

The Hunger

Daybreakers

Dracula 2000

Shadow of the Vampire

Van Helsing

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Vampire Hunter D

Twilight

Vampires in Books

Dracula

The Vampyre

Carmilla

The Dresden Files

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series

Interview With a Vampire etc.

Fevre Dream

Salem's Lot

The Historian

Vampire Academy

Lost Souls

I Am Legend

Twilight series

A Shade of Vampire

The Mortal Instruments series

And tons of paranormal romance books featuring vampires who fall in love or lust with mortal women, or vice versa. Vampires remain a popular anti-hero type for all sorts of fiction.

Vampires on TV

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

True Blood

Young Dracula

Dark Shadows

Being Human

Dracula: The Series

Moonlight

Kindred: The Embraced

Vampire Diaries

Forever Knight

So Dark

Vampires show up in a lot of other television shows and series as well. They range from the comedic to the angsty all the way to the true horrors they were originally meant to be.

Addendum by Louie

It's unfortunate that so many people these days get their ideas about vampires from Hollywood, badly written books and TV shows. Vampires don't sparkle. They don't have relationships with mortals. They don't struggle with eternal angst and empathize all over the place like some kind of elf chick crying because the rain is just so beautiful.

They suck out your blood until you're a crispy sack of bones and then they leave you there for whoever cleans up corpses in the morning. They do have a thing for pure young women (though I hear those are much harder to find these days than a couple hundred years ago) and definitely like toying with people before they do them in. They don't always kill you right out. They might kill you the next day, a week later or even years down the road. But the moment their fangs latch onto your throat, you're a goner.